The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well. It is awesome marketing.
- J. D. Rockefeller
Tag: deliver happiness
Client Satisfaction: 10 Things Your Customers Don’t Tell You
Have you noticed how customer experience design has grown in importance of brand marketing and client satisfaction? More and more trying to astonish the customer. Certainly, a real discriminator, isn’t it? Today we will examine 10 different ways brands have chosen to use their customer experience to stand out above the noise and become a significant contributor to brand marketing.
The end state quality of the product or service the customer receives is what counts. However, this Includes the experience the customer remembered while he purchased the item. Often that is what is remembered the most.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for customer experience design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.
So what constitutes a great customer experience?
The quality of your company’s customer experience is ultimately determined by the way customers feel after their last interaction. If the customer is unhappy, your company’s customer experience is bad. If the customer doesn’t have a feeling one way or the other, your company’s customer experience is mediocre.
If the customer feels good, your company’s customer experience is satisfactory. But if the customer feels delighted, your company’s customer experience is a substantial competitive advantage. That is the only one that really matters to success. And the one everyone is attempting to find the magic for.
Related: 10 Laws of Customer Experience Design
Let’s examine 10 smashing examples to discuss:
Client satisfaction … deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers influenced in the marketing process. Zappos and its business culture of ‘delivering happiness’ certainly has established this as one of its distinct customer experience designs.
(See Zappos’ Marketing Strategy… What is Their Difference Maker?)
Product presentation
Have you ever been in a Whole Foods grocery store? If you have you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their products. Draws your eyes to many, even if you are not looking for them. Helping customers visualize and sometimes taste the products.
(See How Whole Foods Marketing Uses Social Media to be a Difference Maker)
Customer satisfaction examples … product trial usage
Get the customer involved in trying their skill with your different products. More and more businesses are building product trial engagements into their customer experience designs as discriminators. Two of the best at this design approach are Bass Pro Shops and Legos, which often have become major attractions.
(See The 5 Must-Have Qualities of Legos’ Customer Engagement and Design)
Engage all the senses
Starbucks is the master of the customer experience design of engaging all the senses. From the luring visual appeal of their stores to the coffee aroma to the new sound headset stages, and the unique tastes of their products, they engage all of your senses. You may not be Starbucks, but you should consider how you can better engage customers’ senses in their experience.
(See Starbucks Marketing Strategy … the Difference Maker?)
Immersion in product and the brand
Here what the brand represents surrounds the customer and positively influences everywhere they turn. The two best examples of brand immersion? You’ll surely recognize the Disney World and Legos brands in this regard.
Creating good feelings
When a business does something good for someone, that somebody feels good about them. Are you familiar with the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand? They are leaders in this type of discrimination.
(See What Ben and Jerry’s Can Teach You About Social Commerce Business)
How do consumers influence producers … differentiated value
This example, while being traditional, will surprise you in the best brand in this discrimination category. Ever flown Jet Blue? Our favorite airline because of its great, unique discriminators. Consider its high-touch service, its Direct TV and XM radio, and quality snacks. They are number 1 in our minds.
(See How JetBlue Employee Empowerment Culture = Great Customer Experience)
Customer collaboration
Fostering ideas, intentions, and interests is the key to this experience. Dell and Starbucks are the standouts in this category with their long-standing use of customer crowdsourcing. Legos is also growing its crowdsourcing usage.
(See How Starbucks Used My Starbucks Idea to Ace Business Crowdsourcing)
Consumer influence … custom products
Giving customers the ability to create uniqueness in the product they want to purchase is a great way to discriminate between the product and the brand. This technique is probably the most difficult for most businesses to employ. The standout here is Nike and its NikeID product line.
Solving customer problems
Being very good at solving customer problems is a great way to create a good experience. Very needed in the technical product lines of computers and electronics, for example. The standout in this category is Best Buy with its Twelp Force and Geek Squad home services.
The bottom line
Here’s the thing, social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s really a new way of running a business. Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of customer experience as a key way to discriminate. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing, and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your customer experience?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on customer experience from our Library:
10 Laws of Customer Experience Design
Building a Customer Experience Strategy for Business Success
Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
10 Ways to Employ Customer Experience for Influence
Insight Marketing: How Many Ways Is Millefiori Creating Success
D. Rockefeller once said: The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well. A secret? No, not really. Small things? Yes, certainly. Sometimes small actions or even inactions by a business can have a big impact on awesome customer experience. And it is usually due to a lack of an explicit strategy. Certainly not the case of Millefiore insight marketing.
Related: 10 Ways to Employ Customer Experience for Influence
Millifiore certainly appreciates how customer experience design has grown in the importance of brand marketing and consumer influence.
They have made astonishing the customer the centerpiece of their marketing strategy. Certainly, a real discriminator, isn’t it?
Today we will examine 10 different ways Millifiore employs customer experience to stand out above the noise and become a significant contributor to their brand marketing.
The end state quality of the product or service the customer receives is what counts. However, this includes the experience the customer remembered while he purchased the product or service. Often that is what is remembered the most.
Let’s examine 10 smashing examples to discuss:
Insight marketing … deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers influenced in the marketing process.
The millefiori staff goes out of their way both in the store and online to be happy. They want their customers to also experience this feeling. So you will see lots of smiles, happy faces, and positive attitudes.
Product/service presentation
Have you ever been in the Millefiore store or their website? If you have, you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their quality. Draws your eyes to many finer elements of design and products, even if you are not looking for them. Helping customers visualize the products and more importantly the end results of the services offered.
Insight marketing and promotions … best technology
Customers really don’t care about the technology per se, do they? But they care that the results of the technology results in the best impact on the services received, including performance, fewer treatments required, safety, and of course lower cost.
For example. Laser tattoo removal has been in practice for the past 20 years. Until recently there have not been any major advances in the field. This past year a newer technology was FDA approved and now there are two players in the game; the older technology of the Q-switch YAG and the new kid on the block the PicoSure. So what’s the difference between the customer and the experience they are looking for?
PicoSure uses photomechanical/pressure waves which do not use heat and eliminate the risk of damaging the skin and scarring.
PicoSure breaks down the ink into smaller particles which get absorbed faster meaning less procedures to eliminate tattoos. (PicoSure can fully clear a tattoo in as little as 4-6 treatments, while the Q-switch can take up to over 20 treatments).
Millefiori customer experience … easy to do business with
The definition of easy varies by customer base including generations, occupational focus, etc. Everything may seem easy to one generation and maddening to another. Nonetheless, easy will always be at the top of the list for customer experience.
Millifiore puts a priority on avoiding passing on tasks to the customer, either online on at the store, doing everything they can to simplify actions required for the execution of their services.
Attention to detail
Giving customers an ability to create uniqueness in the products or services they want to purchase is a great way to discriminate against the brand. This technique is probably the most difficult for most businesses to employ. The standout here is bundling services together over time to optimize the end result for customers.
Flexibility
When company procedures can flex and bend to the customers’ needs, customers experience the ultimate in care. Why? Because it fits them, their lives, and their businesses. It’s obstacle free.
Whether it is the combination of services offered and their sequence of application or the option of payments, Millifiore strives to pass on maximum flexibility.
Provide utmost care
Customers are glad when you don’t have problems in delivering service. They are elated when your knowledge, experience, and foresight, prevent disasters in their business or life.
Memorable in uncommon ways
In everyday life, customers like to rely on themselves. When they must reach out, they wonder what will happen. When the happening is beyond their expectations, the experience shines.
Quick story: My wife goes for a yearly mammogram. She asks for the same technician each time because her interpersonal skills and sense of humor turn a stressful dreaded ritual into a memorable experience. She makes a difference. My wife could go to a center closer to my house yet I might end up with Betty the compression robot. I’ll pass on that thanks. (My wife will see you next year Maxine!) Many of Millifiore customers feel the same way about their staff.
Act on customer signals
Your customer insights are essential to this effort. We’re not talking just satisfaction surveys—good customer understanding doesn’t come just from spreadsheets and data crunching. Instead, we’re talking about customer sentiments and needs through detailed customer observation, listening and relationship building.
Social skills that identify and shares unspoken or latent needs. A process of gaining good insights and then acting on them. Experimenting at first and then pull ahead. Having a governance mechanism to act on insights is critical…
otherwise, there will be no positive change.
Solving customer problems
Being very good at solving customer problems is a great way to create a good experience. And an honest opinion you can always trust.
Key takeaways
Here’s the thing, social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s really a new way of running a business. Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business. Count Millifiore in that camp.
Give Millifiore a try and spot the customer experiences differences.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of customer experience as a key way to discriminate. And put it to good use like Millefiore.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your customer experience?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
10 Laws of Customer Experience Design
Building a Customer Experience Strategy for Business Success
Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
Walmart Customer Experience Designs Are Failing Improvement Efforts
Is your business focused on improving its customer experience? Many businesses are these days. Walmart is one of these businesses. But are the Walmart customer experience designs failing improvement efforts?
Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.
–Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker certainly understood the real meaning of a great customer experience design, didn’t he?
The end state quality of what the customer received was what counted. Including the experience of the customer while he purchased the service.
Often that is what was remembered the most.
Companies lose customers for a variety of reasons, some of which they never discover. Sometimes customers walk away after a single unpleasant experience.
Other times they’re frustrated by a series of small perceived problems. Is a lack of a customer experience strategy costing your company customers?
Do you know the answer? It is not rocket science, is it? It is a key secret to your success, however.
The truth is, it usually takes significantly more time and energy to find new customers than it does to lose them. So you can be sure a strategy to build a positive customer experience can pay off when done well.
All the marketing in the world cannot make up the damage when it is done poorly or ignored.
Customers today engage with businesses in many different ways, leading to numerous touchpoints and tremendous opportunities for positively influencing their customer experience.
If one considers the hundreds of interactions each customer has throughout his/her lifecycle with a company, how do you define a customer experience to focus their limited resources?
When it comes to coupling the Wal-Mart customer experience to their marketing, they don’t yet grasp the importance of the improved design, do they?
But customers are often less tolerant of their experience (if average experience or better) if the company focus is lower prices.
What constitutes a great customer experience? (See our article on the nine truths to improve customer experience and service design.)
The quality of a business’s customer experience is ultimately determined by the way customers feel after their last interaction. If the customer is unhappy, the customer experience is bad.
If the customer doesn’t have a feeling one way or the other, your business’s customer experience is mediocre.
If the customer feels good, your business’s customer experience is satisfactory. But if the customer feels delighted, your business’s customer experience is a substantial competitive advantage. (See our article on the laws of customer experience).
is the only one that matters to success to most companies. Why shouldn’t it be the same for your Walmart store?
But should it be that way though? It shouldn’t and here is why I conclude this.
Walmart’s customer experience … creating good feelings
When a business does something good for someone, that somebody feels good about them. Are you familiar with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand?
They are leaders in this type of discrimination. Other than the focus on lower prices, can you name one thing Walmart does to create good customer experiences?
(SeeWhat Ben and Jerry’s Can Teach You About Social Commerce Business)
Deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers influenced in the marketing process.
Zappos and its business culture of ‘delivering happiness’ certainly has established this as one of its distinct customer experience designs.
No evidence of Walmart’s customer experience strategy in this area.
(See Zappos’ Marketing Strategy… What is Their Difference Maker?)
Walmart’s customer experience … product presentation
Have you ever been in a Whole Foods grocery store? If you have, you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their products. Draws your eyes to many, even if you are not looking for them.
Helping customers visualize and sometimes taste the products. Traditional product aisles and a product presentation at Walmart.
They work hard at just getting to average, don’t they?
(See How Whole Foods Marketing Uses Social Media to be a Difference Maker)
Walmart’s customer experience … employees don’t care
If you hire people that are not delighted to be social and servicing people, you’ll likely end up with employees that don’t care. Nothing is worse for a customer’s experience.
Most Walmart employees don’t have a positive service attitude, do they?
Walmart’s customer experience … solving customer problems
Being very good at solving customer problems is a great way to create a good experience. Very needed in the technical product lines of computers and electronics, for example.
The standout in this category is Best Buy with its Twelp Force and Geek Squad home services.
If you want to ask technical questions on electronics products, better do it before you get to Walmart is our experience.
Limited solicitation of customer feedback
Many customers are itching to tell you how to improve. If they are not given an opportunity, it degrades the experience.
Likewise, customers always feel good when they see positive improvements.
I have never seen a suggestion box or any activity where Walmart solicited my feedback. What about you?
Walmart’s customer experience … limited employee authority
No empowerment for employees to do the right things? You might as well build a robot to respond to customers.
Nothing worse than have an employee that knows what needs to be done, but is not empowered to do it. Little to no evidence that Walmart empowers employees much.
Little to no personalized customer engagement
Employees who rarely smile and engage socially at one on one engagement are at a very serious disadvantage in being able to create a delightful customer experience.
In the longer term, the business needs to build relationships, particularly with its best customers. Hard to do with no personalized engagement.
Poor to average personal engagement is how we would rate Walmart.
Walmart’s customer experience … poor follow-through
If a customer is told X will be done, they should feel that it will happen. Hopefully faster and better than promised. If something unexpected happens, a good experience demands the customer to be notified and kept informed.
Not much experience with Walmart on this criterion.
Don’t meet expectations
If promises are not kept, expectations by the customer not achieved, negative experiences result. Too negative and your business will lose the customer forever. The absolute last thing you want.
I can’t ask a lot of Walmart without going to extremes. Average at best on this criterion.
The bottom line
So, in summary, here’s the thing: social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of running a business.
Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to grow their business rapidly.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of delightful customer experience. And put it to good use. Don’t be happy with average as Walmart seems to be.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your customer experience?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on customer experience from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Client Satisfaction …10 Secrets to Improve Customer Experience
Customer Orientation … the Worst Customer Experience Mistakes
Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
10 Ways Zappos Client Experience Influences Customers
Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer. Have you noticed how Zappos’s client experience really influences customers for brand marketing and consumer influence? More and more trying to astonish the customer. Certainly, a real discriminator, isn’t it? Today we will examine 10 different ways Zappos client experience is employed to stand out above the noise and become a significant contributor to brand marketing.
The end state quality of the product or service the customer receives is what counts. However, this Includes the experience the customer remembered while he purchased the item. Often that is what is remembered the most.
Here is a short video on an overview of customer experience.
My theory is that if you gave the customer a choice between a coupon for 20% off their next purchase or a fast and easy resolution to their problem, they’ll choose the latter. Even if you surprise them with the gesture of a discount, it won’t make up for the hassle they endured to get their problem resolved. In other words, customers don’t want surprise and delight. They just want delight.
There is a place for a surprise, but not when it comes to customer service. A great example of a surprise is a server at a restaurant who overhears that it is a couple’s anniversary, so they surprise the couple with complimentary champagne. That’s a pleasant surprise, unlike a surprise to make up for something unpleasant, such as having to wait on hold for a customer service agent to connect with you about a problem.
The time to surprise is when you have the chance to make a good situation even better. It adds to the experience versus making up for a bad one. Otherwise, the consistent focus should be on delight. When you consistently focus on meeting and exceeding your customer’s expectations, they will be delighted. When there is a problem and you take care of it without hassle and friction, they will be delighted.
Customer service shouldn’t be a surprise. It should be what is hoped for, expected, and delivered. The customer should never say, “I was surprised that I had a good experience with them.” On the contrary, the customer should say, “It’s always a delight to do business with them.”
What is the best customer experience design you have ever put to work for your business? We would love to hear about it. Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
So what constitutes a great customer experience?
The quality of your company’s customer experience is ultimately determined by the way customers feel after their last interaction. If the customer is unhappy, your company’s customer experience is bad. If the customer doesn’t have a feeling one way or the other, your company’s customer experience is mediocre.
If the customer feels good, your company’s customer experience is satisfactory. But if the customer feels delighted, your company’s customer experience is a substantial competitive advantage. That is the only one that really matters to success. And the one everyone is attempting to find the magic for.
Let’s examine 10 smashing examples to discuss:
Zappos client experience … deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers influenced in the marketing process. Zappos and it’s the business culture of ‘delivering happiness’ certainly has established this as one of its distinct customer experience designs.
Related post: Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
Employ customer experience … product presentation
Have you ever been in a Whole Foods grocery store? If you have you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their products. Draws your eyes to many, even if you are not looking for them. Helping customers visualize and sometimes taste the products.
Zappos client experience … product trial usage
Zappos gets the customer involved in trying their skill with your different products. More and more businesses are building product trial engagements into their customer experience designs as discriminators.
Two of the best at this design approach are Bass Pro Shops and Legos, which often have become major attractions.
Zappos client experience … they engage all the senses
Starbucks is the master of the customer experience design of engaging all the senses. From the luring visual appeal of their stores to the coffee aroma to the new sound headset stages, and the unique tastes of their products, they engage all of your senses.
Zappos may not be Starbucks, but they consider how they can better engage customer senses in their experience.
(See Starbucks Marketing Strategy … the Difference Maker?)
Zappos client experience … immersion in product and the brand
Here what the brand represents surrounds the customer and positively influences everywhere they turn. The two best examples of brand immersion? You’ll surely recognize the Disney World and Legos brands in this regard.
Creating good feelings
When a business does something good for someone, that somebody feels good about them. Are you familiar with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand? They are leaders in this type of discrimination.
(See What Ben and Jerry’s Can Teach You About Social Commerce Business)
Differentiated value
This example, while being traditional, will surprise you in the best brand in this discrimination category. Ever flown Jet Blue? Our favorite airline because of its great, unique discriminators.
Consider its high touch service, its Direct TV and XM radio and quality snacks. They are number 1 in our minds.
Customer collaboration
Zappos fostering ideas, intentions, and interests is their key to this experience. Dell and Starbucks are the standouts in this category with their long-standing use of customer crowdsourcing. Legos is also growing its crowdsourcing usage.
(See How Starbucks Used My Starbucks Idea to Ace Business Crowdsourcing)
Custom products
Giving customers the ability to create uniqueness in the product they want to purchase is a great way to discriminate between the product and the brand. This technique is probably the most difficult for most businesses to employ. The standout here is Nike and its NikeID product line.
Zappos client experience … solving customer problems
Being very good at solving customer problems is a great way to create a good experience. Very needed in the technical product lines of computers and electronics, for example. The standout in this category is Best Buy with its Twelp Force and Geek Squad home services.
The bottom line
Here’s the thing, social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s really a new way of running a business. Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business.
What is the best customer experience design you have ever put to work for your business? We would love to hear about it. Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of customer experience as a key way to discriminate. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative, social marketing and customer experience efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your customer experience?
Do you have a lesson about making your customer experience better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on customer experience from our Library:
Customer Orientation … the Worst Customer Experience Mistakes
Random Acts of Kindness for Customer Experience Improvements
10 Ways to Employ Customer Experience for Influence
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on, and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Seth Godin’s Customer Insight Ideas to Boost Customer Experience
It’s no surprise that the job of a marketer is extremely complex in today’s business world. This is true with Seth Godin’s customer insight ideas to boost customer experience.
It is especially the case with digital channels allowing customers to command how and when, if ever, they will engage with your brand.
Also, marketers have less and less control over their brand communications than ever before. Despite this, they are routinely asked to boost customer experience like these brands.
Marketers need to shift their mindset from telling customers what their company wants them to hear, to listening to customers and having engaging conversations on their terms, when and where they want to have them.
It’s a different way of thinking and engaging. When done right, it will create deep connections to target consumers.
The time is now to change the focus from campaign-oriented marketing to real-time marketing.
The end state quality of the product or service the customer receives is what counts. However, this Includes the experience the customer remembered while he purchased the item.
Often that is what is remembered the most.
What Nate says constitutes a great customer experience?
The quality of your company’s customer experience is ultimately determined by the way customers feel after their last interaction. If the customer is unhappy, your company’s customer experience is bad.
If the customer doesn’t have a feeling one way or the other, your company’s customer experience is mediocre. If the customer feels good, your company’s customer experience is satisfactory.
But if the customer feels delighted, your company’s customer experience is a substantial competitive advantage.
That is the only one that matters to success. And the one everyone is attempting to find the magic for.
So, let’s dig deeper into these customer experiences and what they should include being successful.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … deliver happiness
Feelings and emotions certainly have a significant role in the way customers influenced in the marketing process.
Zappos and its business culture of ‘delivering happiness’ certainly has established this as one of its distinct customer experience designs.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … product presentation
Have you ever been in a Whole Foods grocery store? If you have, you will remember the emphasis on the visual presentation of their products. Draws your eyes to many, even if you are not looking for them. Helping customers visualize and sometimes taste the products.
More details: 12 Whole Foods Customer Engagement Secrets Using Social Media
Product trial usage
Get the customer involved in trying their skill with your different products. More and more businesses are building product trial engagements into their customer experience designs as discriminators.
Two of the best at this design approach are Bass Pro Shops and Legos, which often have become major attractions.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … engage all the senses
Starbucks is the master of the customer experience design for engaging all the senses.
From the luring visual appeal of their stores to the coffee aroma to the new sound headset stages, and the unique tastes of their products, they engage all of your senses.
You may not be Starbucks, but you should consider how you can better engage customer senses in their experience.
More details: 9 Actionable Ways Starbucks Marketing Employs Social Media Innovation
Immersion in product and the brand
It gets better …
Hear what the brand represents surrounds the customer and positively influences everywhere they turn. The two best example of brand immersion? You’ll surely recognize the Disney World and Legos brands in this regard.
More details: 8 Ways Disney World Makes Customer Experience a Difference Maker
More details: 6 Lessons the Lego Brand Teaches About Branding a Business
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … creating good feelings
When a business does something good for someone, that somebody feels good about them.
Are you familiar with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand? They are leaders in this type of discrimination.
Differentiated value
This example, while being traditional, will surprise you in the best brand in this discrimination category. Ever flown Jet Blue? Our favorite airline because of its great, unique discriminators.
Consider its high touch service, its Direct TV and XM radio and quality snacks. They are number 1 in our minds.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … customer collaboration
Fostering ideas, intentions, and interests are the key to this experience. Dell and Starbucks, along with Zappos, are the standouts in this category with their long-standing use of customer crowdsourcing. Legos is also growing its crowdsourcing usage.
The customer journey
Marketers need to predict and monitor the customer journey, not the sales cycle.
When marketing and sales deliver the right information at the right time, they can build relationships and let the customer choose the direction.
This includes inbound marketing tactics like offering premium content the customer downloads after submitting profile information, which helps to identify qualified leads and provide more relevant information in subsequent interactions.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … stay engaging
Conversations need to take place in real-time. Thanks to real-time decision technology, organizations have the to ability deliver a personalized experience to each customer or prospect right at that moment of interaction — be it lunch on a weekday or one in the morning.
Give them what they need, when they need it, and structure your digital ecosystem so that consumers can discover more through serendipity, not by you forcing it on them.
Personalization is essential
Relevance and personalization are key. Customers get vocal and often discredit the company and its communication when they encounter marketing and advertising that doesn’t speak to their needs and interests.
In one recent example — and there are countless others — a photo service sent out emails congratulating customers on having a baby.
The problem was the email went out to the company’s entire list, which included people who had not welcomed a new bundle of joy and were offended.
The secret to delivering a tailored experience is collecting data, using it to show your audience you understand them, looking at analytics to find opportunities for improvement, and optimizing continuously.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … solving customer problems
Marketing content has to be about solving problems, not selling products. Today’s consumers are sophisticated and wary of blatant marketing efforts.
Every communication needs to address critical challenges and pain points and answer “what’s in it for me” for every customer.
You’ll know your messaging is resonating if people are sharing your content.
Stay consistent at all costs
Brand interactions need to be consistent across all channels. Whenever and wherever someone interacts with your brand, the experience needs to build upon everything that came before and flow seamlessly into what they do next.
Again, this is a challenge aided by technology. If a customer calls a contact center, wouldn’t it be good to know in real-time that the customer had recently opened an email about a particular product, and read six web pages about that product?
Marketers and CRM specialists need to maintain an interaction data store so that the history and meaning of previous interactions can be factored into the personalized next-best action decision engine.
Attribute data about a person and people like that person is no longer enough to make optimal real-time decisions in this omnichannel world.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … keep experimenting with channels
Omni-channel capabilities will be critical. Today’s marketing is all about meeting your customers where they are, regardless of channel or platform. If your audience spends time on Twitter or Pinterest, so should you. If they’re mostly on tablets and phones, consider a mobile app.
But all of this technology needs to work together to avoid mixed or misdirected messages, like the example given in rule No. 3.
Kate Nasser’s customer insight … keeping all promises
Don’t make a promise you can’t keep. You can’t just tell people they’re important to you; you need to show it in everything you do and say. That includes addressing issues and complaints promptly and professionally, as well as asking permission and earning trust at every interaction.
You may be wondering …
It’s important to note that changing the minds of your fellow marketing team members might not be easy at first, but the first step is to commit to changing the focus from campaign-oriented marketing to real-time marketing.
You need to devise a plan and shift and gather the right team to develop a holistic, long-term strategy — then get ready to put those plans into motion. The organizations that embrace this new reality will be the ones that rise to the top.
What is the bottom line?
Here’s the thing …
social isn’t just a new way of marketing, it’s a new way of running a business.
Many businesses certainly have figured this out and are using social marketing and improved customer experience to rapidly grow their business.
